As principal photography wraps on Star Wars Episode VII, it has just been confirmed that the new film in the franchise will be known as The Force Awakens. No matter what kind of shit-fit the internet throws, I think it's a decent title.
Yes people will wonder if the next ones will be Star Wars Episode VIII: The Force Scratches it's Balls and Hits the Snooze Button and Episode IX: The Force Realises That Today Will Be the Same as Every Other Miserable Day, Pulls Up the Duvet and Sheds a Little Tear Before Rocking Itself Back to Sleep (or something along those lines) but The Force Awakens is still an exciting title full of promise!
What I would have love to have seen is the mind map/brain storm session that led to this title being chosen. Wouldn't it be great to know all the other possible titles they considered before this one. If The Force Awakens has got people giggling on Twitter, imagine how many snickers there would have been over The Force Arises or The Force Stiffens (ok maybe that last one was never on the cards).
Anyway seeing as I've never been even close to one of the biggest Star Wars fans in the world, just like I'd never seen a single Star Trek film before J.J. Abrams came along, I'm now pretty excited to see what he does with the franchise, especially with the principals from the original trilogy returning as well as new faves like John Boyega and Andy Serkis in the cast.
What do you think of the title? Has it awoken your senses?
If only I had as much writing talent as Peter Jackson
has filmmaking talent. Then I could make all you readers sit through a three
part review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and love almost every minute
of it. Even if it was bloated, meandering and perhaps a little pointless splitting it into three parts.
I finally saw The Hobbit last night at the cinema and I
must say I was a bit fidgety, particularly in the first forty minutes before
the unexpected journey actually begins. Despite this, it has made me want to
re-read the book if not just to see how much Jackson has added in himself.
I’m still angry with Tarantino for what he did to Kill
Bill. I really didn’t think Kill Bill Vol 2 worked very well whereas I loved
every minute of Vol 1. If he had just kept it as one film, I would probably
have loved the whole a hell of a lot more than I loved these two separate parts.
As soon as I heard about Jackson
splitting The Hobbit in two I was very dubious but then to hear he was
splitting it into three seemed laughable.
I loved the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions as much
as the next Tolkein fan but that was after I had fallen in love with the
original well-paced films in the cinema. Watching The Hobbit felt a bit like watching
an extended edition that we hadn’t asked for yet. There were many scenes that
felt like they belonged on the cutting room floor and that perhaps one day in
the future it would be enjoyable to see on a special edition DVD.
That said it’s still a brilliant piece of filmmaking and
there is no doubt I’ll be seeing the next two. But I do wish Peter Jackson had gone
for a leaner version. The Hobbit would make an excellent single film I’m sure.
And I wonder how kids have managed to sit through this first part of the
journey. I read reviews saying it was more kiddy-friendly with all the dwarves
making it comical. But that running time was making my mind wander. There were
so many scenes that will take all three films to realize their true meaning and
value I suspect.
Without a doubt, the most brilliant thing about
the Hobbit was the return of Gollum. To all the people I hear slagging off Lord
of the Rings, I would argue that no matter what they think about the endless
battles, the endless walking and the infinite characters with confusing names,
Gollum is the reason to love these stories. He is the character that stands
above them all; utterly tragic, convincing and played to absolute perfection by
Andy Serkis and the incredible effects work of WETA.
The riddles in the dark scene was perfection. The
genesis of all Gollum’s troubles and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy is
here. Like the scene that opened The Return of the King where we leaned how
Smeagol found the ring in the first place, this was completely devastating and
immediately made me want to re-watch the LOTR trilogy. Gollum is completely sympathetic and the tragedy of his story all came flooding back when he appeared out of the darkness. Martin Freeman and the dwarves never had a chance of stealing this film from the real star. Although I must mention Cate Blanchett as Galadriel who managed to give a potentially dull scene more spark.
The Hobbit Parts 2 and 3 will have a huge task in making
me forget Gollum and I only hope that Smaug will be a memorable villain who might be able to do the trick.
Let me know what you thought in the comments below.
Matt Reeves, the director of found footage monster mash Cloverfield and horror remake Let Me In is confirmed to helm the Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes sequel. The follow up, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is scheduled for a 2014 release.
After the news broke that original director Rupert Wyatt would not be returning for more ape action in the sequel, Fox drew up a short list of potential directors.
Matt Reeves was always reportedly the favourite and obviously seems
unfazed by the tight production schedule as he prepares to shoot for a
summer 2014 release. Many will be disappointed after the promising
inclusion of such directors as Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Rian Johnson (Looper) on the original wish list...
The return of Gollum, Bilbo and Gandalf gets a trailer today. Gollum is kept in the shadows, Gandalf gets bad-ass and Martin Freeman gets to show us his take on Bilbo.
There are lots of nods to The Lord of the Rings trilogy thrown in and brief introductions to the dwarves but no Smaug the dragon yet. Middle Earth still looks fantastic (particularly the Shire) and the Dwarves singing gives the trailer a great, moody, atmosphere.
It all ends with the introduction of Gollum and the warning from Gandalf that this 'Unexpected Journey' will change Bilbo forever. The ring shines in the foreground and many of the shots here are a reminder of why Jackson is such an exciting and entertaining director.
So it's just a year we've got to wait for this one then. With this, The Dark Knight Rises trailer and the Prometheus trailer tomorrow, 2012 is shaping up extremely well from the look of the blockbusters.
You have to start somewhere! In honour of collecting my 30th follower, writing my 65th post and passing the 2100 page view mark, I want to share with you some very (and not so very) recent links from the wonderful film blogging community. This is by no means everything I've been reading and there is a whole lot more great stuff out there but this is me sharing the love for ten posts I have really enjoyed and would like to recommend!
Join the Depp vs Pitt debate... Big Thoughts From a Small Mind
Check out a great essay on film piracy... Cinematic Paradox
Happy reading and please keep following, reading and commenting! Special thanks to Big Thoughts from a Small Mind who have twice put up links to my posts now and for giving me the idea to share the love in my own special way.
Big news today! Bond 23 gets a title... wait for it... Skyfall! Wow! As usual this means nothing to me. It's just another random naming of a Bond adventure that will inevitably lead to another completely average theme song and a much more interesting trippy opening credit sequence featuring sillhouetted women posing suggestively with guns... or something. Slightly more promising than the underwhelming title is the news that Javier Bardem will be following his creepy turn in No Country for Old Men with a stab at a Bond villain. Oh and apparently Bond may have a beard in this one. Being directed by Sam Mendes could be reason to get very excited or it could be a reason to go; Bond? The director of American Beauty? WTF???
Forget Bond. The real big bit of news for today is the signing of Andy Serkis to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. Recently I suggested here that this might be the first prequel ever to not suck. After getting all excited by the trailer, I was not disappointed by the film and actually really hoped that there would be more to come in this franchise. The prequel spent so much time setting up a great character in Caesar (played perfectly using performance capture technology by Andy Serkis), that it only just got to the rising of the apes in the last few minutes of the film. The scope for the sequel is epic. I can't wait to see how these apes are going to bring an end to the rule of us pesky humans on this planet. It should be two hours of (guerilla/gorilla) warfare!
The signing of Serkis means the return of the prequel's anti-hero Caesar. This is a character easy to empathise with and root for, the CGI playing second fiddle to Serkis' motion-captured performance. Go read this excellent post on why Serkis should get an Oscar nomination for his work! It remains to be seen if James Franco will return, though despite being the hero and a great actor to watch, it was Caeser's story that needed to be continued as he leads the revolution.
Anyway, despite the ever increasing reliance on franchises, sequels, prequels and the ever-diminishing originality in Hollywood, this is a sequel to a prequel that will hopefully be a pleasure to see rise at the box office.
Finally a truly decent prequel! Rise of the Planet of the Apes has risen to the challenge and begun the long process of eradicating the memories of all those nasty, disappointing, pointless cash-in prequels that have littered multiplexes, particularly since the Star Wars prequels crushed the childhood dreams of so many.
With a number of cool nods to the original and an origin story that feels like it needed telling, ROTPOTA does not disappoint in starting the story of how Planet Earth became the Planet of the Apes. In fact, the story is set up so carefully and with such a brilliant and engaging character in Caesar, the revolution only begins in the last half hour of the prequel.
Hopefully this means there can be a sequel to this prequel that deals with the war between apes and humans and furthers the story of how humans were crushed. However it could be that the writers of ROTPOTA decided to end the film where they did because they realized that it would get further and further into ridiculousness as they tried to keep showing apes battling and beating humans armed with machine guns, helicopters and tanks.
Anyway, no matter whether the story is too far-fetched for you, the character of Caesar has to go down as one of the most sympathetic antiheroes of all time. Never have I wanted the ‘villain’ to win so much in a film before! Never have I wanted to see us humans crushed by an enemy this badly!
Thanks again to another stunning bit of captured performance from Andy Serkis and the effects people at WETA (following Gollum and King Kong), Caesar is brilliant; filled with recognizable emotions, intelligence and finally, understandably raging against the machine.
Prequels have a bad name for a good reason. Try and come up with a list of 10 good prequels! It’s not easy and many would say impossible. Godfather Part 2 had elements of a prequel but is also a sequel. Temple of Doom is a prequel but is a completely different story to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Revenge of the Sith had it’s moments; the burning of Anakin, the rise of Vader and The Phantom Menace had the pod-race but really I’m clutching at straws.
On the other hand you have Hannibal Rising, Leatherface: The Beginning and Attack of the Clones. I shiver at the mention of their names.
So maybe with ROTPOTA and X-Men: First Class, a change is coming. Perhaps this is the dawn of the quality prequel. Or am I being unfair? What have I missed? Are there other great prequels out there? Do the reboots of Star Trek and Batman count as prequels? You tell me…
